5. Babies love praise and loving attention. Give as much as you can!
6. Increase your baby's sense of security by cuddling and holding her, just because.
7. Recognize your baby's energy cycles, and take a break from play activities if your baby becomes tired or fussy. This protects (or creates) the link in your child's mind between play and pleasure.
8. At this stage, distraction works better than discipline. If you child insists on pulling on the table cloth or slamming kitchen cabinets, distract her with toys and move her to a safer play area.
9. Don't feel guilty if you feel you can't give anymore. Needing a break is a normal , and finding a way to take some time for yourself is essential. (Easier said than done? Yes!)

Adapted from Infants (0-1 years) | CDC
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​Irregular breathing is normal
Sleeping babies can scare the heck out of you by pausing without a breath for 5-10 seconds. This is normal! And when babies are excited or they have just stopped crying, the can take more than 60 breaths per minute. (Of course, if your child stops breathing for more than 10 seconds or is turning blue, this is a medical emergency.)
 
Taste buds everywhere
Babies are born with the same number of taste buds as an adult, but unlike the taste sensors of an adult, they are located on the tonsils and the back of the throat!

Dry eyes?
Babies start to cry around 2-3 weeks of age, but their tears do not show up until they are a month old. 

Looking to the right
85% of newborns prefer to turn their head to the right when lying on their back. This preference appears to be genetic and lasts for a few months. Some researchers think that this right-side bias might be linked to right- or left-handedness (Estimates of the number of naturally left-handed people varies form 9-12 percent globally). 

Many new moms feel (or are made to feel) that their ups and downs are somehow an indication that they are not a good mother, and they will trudge along believing that suffering is somehow noble or necessary. Make no doubt about it, becoming a new mom IS difficult, and you will find that you are able to do things you never thought possible (like function on no sleep). If you are able to carve a bit of time out to take care of yourself, you will feel much better. This is especially important for those of us that don’t have a support network to lean on.

You might be feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, angry and sad one minute, and ecstatic with joy and love the next. In this whirlwind of emotions, your reactions might not always be as Zen as you had envisioned they would be while reading all those parenting books a few months before your baby arrived.

​It is important to remember that VOCs are cumulative, so a GreenGuard Gold certified crib that is off-gassing at up to 220 μg/m3 total VOCs plus a GreenGuard Gold certified mattress that is off-gassing at up to 220 μg/m3 total VOCs starts to add up to a lot of toxin exposure. A bit like that “new car smell” or the smell of a newly renovated house: the more off-gassing elements you have (carpets, paint, furniture, etc.), the more toxic the air. Ideally, the VOC levels inside our houses should not go above normal outdoor levels (of 20 μg/m3).
 
The problem with these “green” certifications is that you know that a product is below a certain threshold, but you have no idea by how much. And once manufacturers or retailers have certified products, they will no longer tell you the VOC level of their products, they will just hide behind their certification. For sensitive consumers (and I count new-borns and their tiny lungs in this category), this is very concerning.

​What these types of certifications DO NOT measure is other types of toxins, such as phthalates, biocides, flame retardants and heavy metals.

(Adapted from The science of healthy baby sleep - BBC Future)
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Why do babies wake frequently from sleep? Their own protection! When young babies slip into deep sleep, or “slow wave sleep”, they can stop breathing. Babies have a built in protection: simply waking up. 

​If we prematurely (i.e., before they are developmentally ready) push a baby into this deep sleep, the risk of SIDS increases. One way parents were encouraged to create deep sleep was to put babies to sleep on their stomachs, something that is now considered dangerous. In fact, SIDS rates plummeted once world-wide campaigns advised parents to place babies on their back to sleep. (Stomach, or “prone”, sleeping makes SIDS 13 times more likely).

Many parents worry that deep sleep is necessary for the healthy development of their baby, but scientists have NOT found a correlation between frequent waking and cognitive development, psychomotor development, behaviour, or emotional regulation. The total amount of sleep is important, not the amount of time a baby can sleep without waking.

1. Have your baby sleep, separately, in your room.
2. Encourage good sleep habits: Establish a calm and consistent routine, with low stimulation activities in a softly lit room, before your child is too tired. Try to identify patterns with a journal and adapt as much as you can to your child’s schedule.
​3. Remember that this period won’t last forever!​ 

Don’t judge yourself or your baby if the sleep patterns in your household are different than others’. Your parenting skills are not reflected in your child’s sleep patterns, and being kind and patient toward your child and yourself will help you get through this challenging time.​

As always, if you think there is something you are concerned about or you need help, speak to your baby’s doctor.

​Trying to get more information is difficult. I contacted a very well-known distributor of “wood” cribs available in Canadian big box stores and baby boutiques, and they told me that they didn’t even know what their cribs were made with, saying “Unfortunately, those specifications are not provided to us.” Another local high-end baby crib manufacturer markets their cribs as “solid wood” when they are in fact made of plywood and veneers.